An aristocrat and her partner are facing two more charges after their daughter’s death.
Constance Marten and Mark Gordon were charged with manslaughter by gross negligence on March 2 after the body of two-month-old Victoria was found in Brighton. They were also charged with concealing a child’s birth and perverting the course of justice.
Before a hearing at the Old Bailey on Monday (July 10), it emerged that the defendants face new charges of child cruelty and causing or allowing the death of a child. It is claimed they caused the baby’s death by their own “unlawful act” or failed to “take such steps as could reasonably have been expected” to protect the baby.
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The alleged offences are said to have taken place between January 4 and February 27.
Marten, 36, and Gordon, 49, of no fixed address, appeared from custody before Judge Mark Lucraft KC.
Marten appeared by video link from Bronzefield prison and Gordon from Belmarsh jail and spoke only to confirm their identities. Marten wore a pink and white floral print shirt and Gordon a grey tracksuit for the short hearing.
Judge Lucraft put a plea and case management hearing back from August 18 to September 22 and confirmed the provisional trial has been set for January 2 next year.
A further mention hearing was set for August 25.
Victoria’s remains were found in a plastic bag in a locked shed at an overgrown allotment in the Hollingbury area of Brighton on March 1. The discovery came after Marten and Gordon were arrested in Stanmer Villas in the city.
An initial post-mortem examination was unable to establish a cause of death.
Police had been trying to find the defendants for several weeks.
Marten and Gordon had travelled the UK by taxi since a car was found burning on the M61 in Bolton on January 5. The couple travelled from Bolton to Liverpool, then to Harwich in Essex, then to east London and then to Sussex.
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